With Cameron Rising injured, Penn State storms past Utah for Rose Bowl win
Midway through the third quarter of the 109th Rose Bowl, Utah quarterback Cameron Rising stepped back onto the hallowed turf, staring down a scenario in which he has thrived all season: his Utes trailing, needing their senior leader to respond and rally them to victory.
Twice against USC, Rising sparked comeback wins with his creative guile and guts, which was a big part of why Utah had returned to Pasadena for a second straight new year — and why the Trojans were sent to the Cotton Bowl instead of competing in the College Football Playoff.
Penn State freshman tailback Nick Singleton had just darted through the middle of the Utah defense for an 87-yard touchdown run to put the Nittany Lions up seven. On the ensuing drive, Rising, the Newbury Park product, scrambled nine yards to convert a third down, seemingly starting his latest emphatic answer.
Despite five touchdown passes by Caleb Williams, USC could not hold on as Tulane storms back for a 46-45 victory in the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, on Monday.
But he didn’t get up. Flashbacks flooded the minds of the Utah faithful. A year ago, the Utes were tied with Ohio State when Rising took a hit to the head and missed the rest of the game — a gutting defeat. Monday, Rising’s misfortune continued with what appeared to be a left knee injury. He needed help walking off the field.
Soon, Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford was finding speedster KeAndre Lambert-Smith for an 88-yard touchdown pass, the longest scoring strike in Rose Bowl history, and a game that appeared to be a budding classic would suddenly turn into a rout with 21 straight Nittany Lions points.
“It almost seemed we lost a little bit of our mojo when [the injury] happened,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We had a little bit of a deflation on our team. It’s unfortunate that we had the drop-off that we did.”
No. 11 Penn State won its second Rose Bowl, its first since a 1995 win over Oregon, 35-21 and left little doubt who the better team was on this day, regardless of Rising’s injury.
“I’m just proud of these guys,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “I was here in 2016, one of the better Rose Bowl games, and watched somebody else [USC] celebrate, and I wanted this for them.”
No. 8 Utah became the first Pac-12 team to lose back-to-back Rose Bowls since USC in 1988 and 1989.
“We just have to keep coming back to this game until we get it right,” Whittingham said. “Took us three times in the Pac-12 championship before we got the win, so we’ve got to make sure that we try to continue to get better.”
For Rising, who dreamed of winning a Rose Bowl as a kid growing up in Ventura County, this venerable stadium is now his personal house of pain.
“It breaks my heart,” Whittingham said. “He’s such a warrior and such a fierce competitor.”
Something seemed off all day in Pasadena. The moody gray skies. The chilly breeze. The clouds stationed over the San Gabriel Mountains, blocking the game’s trademark sunset like stubborn sentinels.
Actually, it wasn’t so different than the conditions Penn State lives with most of the year in central Pennsylvania. Right around the time Penn State took the game over, rain started to fall — the first precipitation during the “Granddaddy of Them All” since 1997. Before that, the drought had lasted all the way back to 1955.
It really poured in the fourth quarter as Penn State zoomed to a 35-14 lead. Perhaps it was Mother Nature crying for the plight of Rising, who did not get to finish what he started for the second time in as many years.
Before the injury, he had only completed eight of 21 passes for 95 yards, rushing for 56. The performance was not up to standard, but there was plenty of time for him to do what he does best — figure out a way.
In the end, it was another senior quarterback who had endured mounds of criticism during his time in Happy Valley who was showered with love from his fan base late in the fourth quarter when Franklin strategically pulled Clifford from the game with about two minutes left.
“I wanted to take a moment for him to come out of the game and be recognized,” Franklin said, “because Sean has experienced it all at Penn State, he really has.”
Clifford enjoyed a dream ending to his college career, throwing for 279 yards and two touchdowns on the way to being named offensive player of the game.
“It means a lot,” Clifford said. “I actually posted a picture on my social media of me as a kid. I was in fifth grade, and my dad surprised me with the opportunity to fly out here with a really good friend of mine and his dad [for a camp]. I just remember really falling in love with football, specifically falling in love with the quarterback position. For it to come full circle and then to just be a spoke in the wheel for this team in the Rose Bowl is just such a blessing.”
College football’s national championship game between top-ranked Georgia and a never-give-up TCU squad will provide plenty of L.A.-caliber entertainment.
Meanwhile, his counterpart’s Rose Bowl story feels cursed once again.
Rising will now have a decision to make about whether to use his final year of eligibility and make one more run at postseason glory with the Utes or declare for the 2023 NFL draft.
It remains to be seen how his health will factor into that decision.
“The injury … doesn’t look good,” Whittingham said. “Looks like it could be something that takes a while to recover from. That’s not positive right now. … He’ll be back. I promise you that. Hopefully he’s back with us. That’s to be determined.”
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